Splunk Back in Favor After Earnings and Analyst Calls

By Chris Lange Published Nov 21, 10:45AM EST

Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK) reported its third-quarter results Thursday after the market close as $0.02 in earnings per share and $116.0 million in revenue. That was against Thomson Reuters consensus estimates of $0.01 in earnings per share. This translated top operating income of $2.7 million, with margins at 2.3% from operations. In the previous year, Splunk posted $0.00 in earnings per share and $78.6 million in revenue.

Splunk gave guidance for the fourth quarter of $135 million to $137 million in revenue and an operating margin between 4% and 5%. The consensus estimates for the fourth quarter are $0.04 in earnings per share and revenue of $133.26 million.

Year over year, total revenues grew 48%. A large part of this was the licensing, which contributed $71.8 million. Operating income was $2.7 million and the operating margin was 2.3%.

In the third quarter, Splunk signed more than 500 new enterprise customers, ending the quarter with over 8,400 customers worldwide.

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Following the earnings report, analysts across the board jumped on Splunk. FBR Capital Markets reiterated its Outperform rating and raised the target price to $83 from $78. Canaccord Genuity raised its target price to $80 from $68. Other positive calls and price target hikes were seen from the likes of Goldman Sachs, BMO Capital Markets, Morgan Stanley, Oppenheimer and Deutsche Bank.

Godfrey Sullivan, Splunk chairman and CEO, said:

This quarter we released new versions of all of our core products, offered new solutions for mobile, wire, mainframe and sensor data, and strengthened our market teams. We welcomed over 500 new customers, saw growth in all of our core markets — with the growth in security especially notable — and we had our best quarter yet with Splunk Cloud.

Shares of Splunk closed Thursday up 1.6% at $64.94. Following the release of the earnings report, the initial response at Friday’s opening bell was positive and shares were up over 8% at $70.29, before dropping back to $68.59 in late morning trading.

The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $69.00 and a 52-week trading range of $39.35 to $106.15. The market cap is nearly $8 billion.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.